Michael Wilderman
301-523-8171 (mobile)
www.jazzvisionsphotos.com
Click HERE TO CONTACT by email

EDUCATION - B.S., 1964, City College of New York; M.S., 1966, University of Miami
WORK EXPERIENCE - National Park Service, 1978 – retirement in 2006, to devote time to photography and jazz music/history.

My Education and Work Experience generally had little relevancy to my photographic activities, except for occasional photography. However, I was involved as jazz historian, photographer, and liaison to the jazz community during the New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park Special Resource Study, 1991-1993 that led to the establishment of New Orleans Jazz National Historical Park. I have been very pleased to have assisted in this federal recognition of jazz history and culture. I am personally interested in jazz history and the historic preservation and recognition of jazz heritage sites nationally. I have been compiling information about the widespread local private and public programs related to jazz heritage.

JAZZ PHOTOGRAPHY
I try to capturing the creative expression, spirit, and individualistic character of the artists. I am mostly self-taught, studied the masters of the genre, and established my own informal working techniques. More recently I employed digital technology to scan my negatives and format the images. My first published jazz photo was in Down Beat magazine in 1974. In 1977, in the D.C. area I began regularly contributing to JazzTimes magazine. I am a listed contributor to Down Beat and JazzTimes. My pictures have also published regularly in other jazz magazines, journals, and newspapers, including:

Signal to Noise (with photo features); N.Y. Times magazine, Jazziz, Jazz Beat, The Jazz Report, American Visions, America Illustrated, The Wire, and various newspapers

Over 40 BOOKS in which my photos appear, including:
The Jazz Scene, 1991; Living the Jazz Life, 2000, and Growing Up With Jazz, 2005, W. Royal Stokes, Oxford Univ. Press
Dizzy: John Birks Gillespie in His 75th Year, compiled & ed. by Lee Tanner, 1993, Pomegranate Art Books
Latin Jazz-La Combinacion Perfecta, Raul Fernandez, 2002, Chronicle Books
Four Jazz Lives, A.B. Spellman, 2004, University of Michigan Press
The Velvet Lounge: On Late Chicago Jazz, Gerald Majer, 2005, Columbia University Press
DIZZY - The Life & Times of John Birks Gillespie, Donald L. Maggin, 2005, Harper Collins
Steve Lacy: Conversations, Jason Weiss, 2006, Duke University Press
A Power Stronger Than Itself: The AACM and Experimental Music, George Lewis, 2008, University of Chicago Press
Discover Jazz, text book by John Edward Hasse and Tad Lathrop, 2012, Pearson Publishing (10 photos)
Washington, DC, Jazz, Regennia Williams & Sandra Butler-Truesdale, 2019, Arcadia Publishing (44 photos& cover)
The Essential W. Royal Stokes, Jazz, Blues, And Beyond Reader, W. Royal Stokes
Elegant People: A History of the Band Weather Report, Curt Bianchi, Backbeat Books, 2021
Easily Slp Into Another World - A Life In Music, autobiography by Henry Threadgill & Brent Hayes Edwards, Alfred A. Knopf, 2023
The Willimansburg Avant-Garde, Cisco Bradley, Duke University Press, 2023

88 CDS & OTHER RECORDINGS, covers or booklets, including:
Malachi Favors, Natural and the Spiritual, AECO Records LP, 1978
Live! at Blues Alley, Blues Alley Limited Edition (5 CDs of Ahmad Jamal, Stanley Turrentine, Dizzy Gillespie, and Ramsey Lewis)
Mapleshade Studios (13 CDs including Larry Willis, Eddie Gale, Clifford Jordan/Ran Blake, David Murray, and Hamiet Bluiett)
Eremite Records (10 CDs including William Parker, Fred Anderson, Peter Brotzmann, Marshall Allen, Jemeel Moondoc, and others)
Delmark Records (three CDs of Anthony Braxton or Malachi Thompson
Freddie Hubbard, Pinnacle-Live & Unreleased From Keystone Korner, Resonance Records
JDF Music and other independents (17 CDs with Joel Futterman, Kidd Jordan, Alvin Fielder, Ike Levin, and Kash Killion
Kidd Jordan, Alvin Fielder & Peter Kowald, Trio and Duo In New Orleans, No Business Records
Frank Morgan & George Cables, Montreal Memories, High Note Records, 2018 (cover)
Kidd Jordan Quartet A Tribute To Alvin Fielder, Live At The Vision Festival XXIV, Mahakala Music (photos featured), 2020
Julius Hemphill, 7 CD Box Set, Julius Hemphill: The Boye Multi-National Crusade for Harmony, New World Records, 2021
Joel Futterman, 5 CD Box Set, Creation Series, No Business Records, 2021
Clifford Jordan, drink plenty water and walk slow, Harvest Song Records, 2022
Joel Futterman, Creation Series, No Business Records, 2022, Five CD Box set


Over 20 EXHIBITS, including:
U.S. Information Agency traveling jazz exhibit, 1992
Philadelphia Afro-American Cultural & Historical Museum, October, 1993
H.R. 57 Center for the Preservation of Jazz and Blues, March 1996, Women In Jazz
Jazz Gallery, New York City, 1996, 97 and 1999, group shows on Dizzy Gillespie, Don Pullen, Tribute to Jazz Piano
Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibit, Latin Jazz: La Combinación Perfecta, opening October 2002 and touring
Vision Festival exhibits, 2000,2004, 2005, 206, 2009, 20011
Brown v. Board of Education National Historic Site, Latin Jazz: Where Africa and the Caribbean Meet, September 2006,
Jefferson Center, Roanoke, Virginia, Don Pullen Arts Exhibit, Celebration of The Life and Music of Don Pullen, January 2012
Blagden Alley Museum/DC Jazz Festival, The Art Ensemble of Chicago in DC, 2006
Capital Fringe Gallery, Washington, DC, DC Jazz Photos & Photo-Based Paintings, Joint Exhibit, 2017

Miscellaneous Appearances:
National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters, multiple publications
T-shirt designs, licensed in 1994-2002, Sun Ra; Charles Mingus; Max Roach; Dizzy Gillespie; Art Blakey
Video, Nas: Time Is Illmatic, video documentary on the rapper Nas by One9 & Erik Parker/Netflix
Film, Upstairs with David Amram, National Film Board, Canada, 2021 and others

Internet web pages:
My website at www.jazzvisionsphotos.com
Pianist Joel Futterman's site (which I manage)
Point of Departure - an online musical journal by Bill Shoemaker
David Amram's Site
National Endowment of the Arts Jazz Masters see Anthony Braxton, Richard Davis, Yusef Lateef, and Frank Wess in this 2014 publication.
NEA Jazz Masters 30th Anniversary publication see various artists from previous years.
Jaki Byard Gallery
Rahsaan Roland Kirk and Sonny Stitt from The Velvet Lounge by Gerald Majer
Bobby Hutcherson with Jackie McLean from A Bobby Hutcherson Website
Glenn Spearman Sessionography A work in progress by Rick Lopez
and other artist’s sites and many MORE.

My photos have been used for promotion by various musicians and groups. I work cooperatively with musicians, music venues, and presenters to help support the music and stimulate performances. I have donated photos to not-for-profit organizations for use in their promotional materials, programs, and fund raising brochures, including:

The Vision Festival, Arts For Art Duke Ellington Jazz Festival District Curators Blues Alley Music Society National Public Radio WPFW-FM/Pacifica Radio Cap City Jazz Festival

WBGO-FM Rhythm & Blues Foundation Wolf Trap Farm Park Thelonious Monk Institute Southern Arts Federation National Jazz Service Organization